


Learning to smile (Honestly)

by Mageless



Category: Criminal Minds
Genre: And really can anyone on this team have some pure fluff, F/M, I was gonna write fluff, Multi, and then my brain went buttttttt, lil' bit, okay so, they kinda a mess, trauma™
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-03
Updated: 2020-10-03
Packaged: 2021-03-08 02:55:42
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death, Rape/Non-Con
Chapters: 1
Words: 769
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26798443
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Mageless/pseuds/Mageless
Summary: Just a collection of silly Garcia & Hotch fluff. Some will be / and some will be &, but mostly it'll just be fun ^__^ps. May have some traumaTM & angst.
Relationships: Penelope Garcia & Aaron Hotchner, Penelope Garcia/Aaron Hotchner, may have more later on
Comments: 3
Kudos: 16





	Learning to smile (Honestly)

The team stared warily at their bosses' closed door, peered through the glass windows and into the office inside, glanced curiously and with great worry at the frowning, glaring, downright furious agent Aaron Hotchner inside. Some of them held folders, files of reports and forms and assorted papers that really, really needed to get handed in. Just... not when he was glaring like that. Bravely, though it might be more accurate to say 'naively' or 'foolishly', Penelope Garcia volunteered herself as tribute. Cheerfully she gathered up everyone's folders, labelled them in pastel coloured sticky notes and sparkly gel pens. Then, slowly, she bounced her way up the stairs and outside of his door, allowing herself a moment, just a moment of nervousness before she knocked on it. 

"Ah- Sir?" She called out, hoping her voice sounded better than het stomach felt, ignoring how it twisted her insides. She really, really hated it when one of the team was unhappy. Especially Hotch. The man Hunched over his laptop, tapping furiously, probably rebuking some annoying email from Strauss or settling up a case file. He didn't register her the first time, and it somehow took significantly more courage to knock again. Fortunately, she didn't have to do it a third time. He didn't hear her, but there was some light cursing at the screen and then he looked up, seeing her fretful face through the blinds. Her face settled into what she knew what probably quite a fretful grin. "Hey boss."

He coughed. She couldn't help but notice that he did so with just a hint of embarrassment. For a second. she almost thought she saw him flush. "Come in, Garcia."

Her arms ached from the weight of stacked paper and manilla card, so she didn't argue. Instead she shuffled over to his desk, dropping the dangerously balanced stack on top of it. A few sticky notes drifted to the floor, but for the sake of her mental wellbeing she resolutely ignored them. "You doing okay, boss?" She asked, not sure what kind of answer she really wanted. She really hated this, poking the bear. Praying it wouldn't snap. Did she want him to lie? Say he was fine? Or did she want to bear the burden of the painful truth?

"... I died." Mumbled Hotch, shifting his laptop screen. She panicked, for a moment. Wondered if he'd gone through something horrific again. He wouldn't be the first member of the time to have come back from the dead. She could feel it coming for her, waves of panic pressing down on her chest, filling up her lungs, making her feel sick to her stomach and incapable of breath. Her knuckles tightened and turned white, she felt them push the boundaries of her skin. Then, of course, she saw his screen. 

Game over. You died. 

She almost swore. She really, really did. She saw the virtual incarnations of men and women jumping all over his own _virtual_ corpse, and for a moment she considered doing the same thing to the Aaron Hotchner that was presently in the room. Then she realised that he hadn't actually done anything _wrong,_ and couldn't help but laugh instead. She watched the automatic revive countdown hit zero, and noticed his ID in the top left corner. AaronHotchner. Typical. 

"Well then!" She shouted, clapping her hands together as she stood up from her seat. "I'll leave you to it, boss!" She ignored the flush on his face, and definitely the wry little smile it sported. He nodded, turning back to the screen and clicking onto his emails. "Goodbye, Garcia."

She wandered out of the room, down the stairs and into the crowd of her BAU babies questioning her worriedly about their boss. She shrugged, throwing them a reassuring if brief giggle. "He's fine." she promised, and then she was gone. Off into her dungeon of awesome to grab her stuff. No horrors on her screen today, at least. 

When she got home, the first thing she did was flick open her laptop, load up of her games and log in. The second -or perhaps fourth or even twelfth- thing she did was send a friend request, enjoying the dramatic if stereotypical music as she typed. 

_[Hey there, Hotchner]_ It read. She just couldn't call him Aron, even if they weren't at work. It felt weird. [ _Need a hand with that raid?]_

It wasn't even until he messaged her back the next morning that she realised she hadn't even told him who she was. She really tried not to headbutt her wall when she did.

"ow!" Tried and failed. 


End file.
